Recently, I was gently encouraged with respect to my journey out of cancer from two very separate sources.

My NHS Oncologyst suggested that I must have something ‘to get excited’ about to help overcome this ‘cancer diagnosis that did not suit me’, When I explained that I sing with a Concert Choir, she said I must pay careful attention to that single activity to help me move forward.

Interestingly enough, I was also given the following encouraging ‘message’ at the end of the Penny Brohn Cancer Care “Approach Course” I attended last March. 'Remember the Music of your Being, Let the Universe hear your song'.

It seems that singing is just a smidgen more important to me lifting from this journey than I first realised!

Hello mountainman, that is so lovely to hear. Here at Penny Brohn we have just started our own community choir for people with cancer and their friends. It is going extremely well and people are really enjoying it, we already have 60 people signed up!

We are really excited about it here, so thought I'd share our collective love of singing with you.

Hello Sophieb. Your choir sounds a totally superb idea but it does occur to me that folks with can only really partake for a short time as they pass through? even so, one singing session is worth such a lot. Keep going and keep singing!

It was also suggested to me at Penny Brohn that I get on with singing in my life, it is good to do the singing and breathing exercises, it brings oxygen into the body and cancer cannot live in an oxygenated environment, I have a class now that I go to ....and I love it and am singing solos, something I had not done since being at school. I can honestly say that I love it......I hope you do it and love it too!!! I hope it leads to your recovery.....all best wishes Sue

One of the therapists who spoke to our support group talked about the importance of doing "what makes your soul sing". We are encouraging people to do this, whether it's dancing, singing, swimming, making music, art, writing, walking. Put it at the top of your agenda each day! Walking, mainly on the cliffs by the sea, makes my soul sing - and sometimes writing poetry if it hasn't been too much of a hard slog....

I forgot to say that we have a small cancer choir here in West Dorset - Rising Voices West. We meet for an hour 3 times a month and people come and go as they can, no pressure on anyone. We sing simple rounds and popular songs and sometimes get asked to perform, our choir leader is great fun and very understanding. More info on Living Tree website: thelivingtree.org.uk